The sound of barking dogs was deafening from afar.

I was on my way to confirm the report that 'persons with intellectual disabilities are being abused at a farm that illegally raises 500 dogs'.

After an hour's drive from Seoul, we arrived at Samseong-ri, Ganghwa-gun, Incheon.

The iron door leading into the dog farm was tightly shut, and even with a stiletto, the inside was not visible.



I met an old woman by chance in front of the door.

Blocking the reporter from going inside, he offered a drink.

"It's the first time something like this has happened, so my heart is trembling. Let's drink Bacchus first."

My grandmother was a dog farm owner.

When the grandmother said, 'This is the first time something like this has happened', it meant that the law had been illegal for that long.

Iron cages less than 1 pyeong... 500 dogs trapped


The dog farm I went to and saw in person was truly shocking.

Over 500 dogs barked at the same time, causing the entire farm to rumble, and a foul odor pierced through the mask.

Up to 10 dogs were trapped in an iron cage of less than one pyeong.

The iron cage was old and rusted, and some dogs were scratched by the iron cage and could not stand properly.



The mother and the offspring were not separated and lived in the same cage.

The dogs ate the ground food waste, and for the dogs here, food was a luxury.

The reporter found the bodies of four dogs that day.

One was found with a bleeding nose, two with the umbilical cord attached, and the other with torn skin.

The dead dogs were left in the corner of the iron cage.

There wasn't even the least amount of care.

The owner said he had 500 dogs for fun and as a hobby.


I went out of the farm and met the owner again.

I asked him why he had a dog.



"I'm just living for fun with this."


"Did you have fun?"


After "hobbies, hobbies,"

the owner changed the words, 'I have nothing to live for, so I've been doing this little by little, so I've grown so much.

At first he said he didn't sell dogs, but eventually admitted that he had dogs for sale.



Villagers unanimously said they saw dog merchants coming and going from time to time.

It is said that he witnessed firsthand the dog dealers arriving at dawn with large trucks and carrying the dogs.

One resident added, 'The dogs mainly go to Gimpo, where the slaughterhouse is clustered.'

Man exploited on dog farm, all he got is makgeolli and cigarettes


While I was doing the coverage for a while, I found a man working on a fire inside the farm.

Whether or not he knew what he was doing, he was busy cleaning the farm.

It was the intellectual disability who said 'to be exploited here'.

I approached the man and talked to him, but communication was not easy.

He vaguely remembered the past, saying, 'I came here to work 12 years ago.'

What did he receive in return for his 12 years of labor?



“Did you get any money?”


"I don't get paid, so I work with makgeolli and cigarettes."



The only thing given to him, who worked from dawn to night, was makgeolli and cigarettes.

He called the dog farm owner 'grandmother' or 'wife'.

He mainly lived and slept in container boxes on the farm.

When I went inside, it was full of garbage, bugs, and spider webs.

They said they would sleep here after work, but it was so poor that it was hard to imagine a place where people lived.

He settled the meal in a hut near the container box.

They ate and ate 365 days a year, neither indoors nor outdoors.

This hut was also full of rotten food, worms, and uncleaned vessels.

10 years of slavery in an uninhabitable place


The villagers remembered this man as a 'slave'.

Rain or shine, they work all day.

One resident who once went inside the farm explained, 'It was not a place for people to live.'



Villager 1

"Looks like a slave, to us. Whether it rains or snows, we do what we tell them to do."



Villager 2

"The situation inside (farm) was not good. It was not a habitable place, it just smells like a dog."



He said he started working 12 years ago, but he couldn't remember 'why he came here'.

I've only been told over and over that I've been living this life for over 10 years.

When I asked if it was difficult to live here, he replied that it was especially difficult in winter.

I asked him many times why it was difficult, but he couldn't get a clear answer because of communication difficulties.



On the 14th, he left the hellish dog farm with the help of police and disability support groups.

Because when the social worker asked him, 'Do you want to leave this place?', he replied 'I will leave'.

Currently, he is resting at a shelter for the disabled in Incheon.

The social worker in charge explained that this man actually has a disability, but it is possible that he is an 'unregistered disabled person' who has not been registered with a disability.

At the shelter, background checks and counseling are being conducted at the same time.

I paid 600,000 won a month, so it's not exploitation, is it?


The dog farm owner insisted it was "not exploitation, but working together."

It is said that he never forced labor and paid 600,000 won per month.

In fact, the farm owner sent the man's wife 600,000 won each month.

The man's wife is known to have stated in a police investigation that 'his husband is not disabled and he received 600,000 won a month.'

After all, even his wife was aware of the exploitation.



However, even if calculated based on the minimum wage, 600,000 won a month is far short of a month's salary.

In addition, it is difficult to conclude that the labor contract was concluded by the male's arbitrary judgment.

It should be checked whether the man directly agreed to the labor contract.

Even if an employment contract has been signed, it is not a legal wage payment under the Labor Standards Act for the wage to be paid on behalf of a family other than the male who is the party to it.



Police are investigating the farm owner.

It is to check whether the Animal Protection Act and the Welfare Act for the Disabled have been violated.

The Ganghwa County Office has issued a correction order for several issues, including illegal construction, illegal dog breeding, and waste disposal violations on the farm.

The owner of the dog farm is said to have responded to the county government 'I will reduce the number of dogs'.

The Ganghwa-gun Office said that if it is not corrected, it will even consider filing a complaint.

'Exploitation of the disabled' that no one knew about for 12 years


Exploitation against people with disabilities is not readily apparent. This is because it is difficult for the victim to accurately explain their situation, and the perpetrator takes advantage of it. The case of exploitation of a dog farm in Ganghwa-gun, Incheon was similar. No one would have asked him, 'Do you want to go home?' until the social worker asked him if he wanted to leave. I am very happy to be leaving the dog farm that was like a living hell now, but on the other hand, I regret that I did not know sooner.



Obviously there were plenty of opportunities. If the local government had inspected the dog farm before it grew to this size, it might have been different if someone had asked the man who 'looked like a slave' what was going on. Now that he has been rescued, the investigation must solve unresolved questions such as when and why the dog farm owner exploited him.